Fateful Encounter On Karate Island
The Return of the Monkey "Nine hundred and ninety eight, nine hundred and ninety nine, one thousand," the young man said, after completing his mid-day warm up of punching the massive boulder three times his size, just outside the dojo he'd spent the last few years training and living in. This young man was none other than Ares the Prodigy of Karate Island, a relatively well known martial artist and outlaw in the South Blue. The sky above the island was as clear as the ocean that surrounded it, the sun was shining and the breeze was minimal. It was a lovely day to say the least. The teenaged martial artist lifted the boulder and chucked it high into the air with a single. On it's descent he let loose a seemingly effortless jab at the falling boulder, shattering it completely sending the debris flying. "Stronger.. I need to get stronger," he uttered. "Karate Island been wanting to come here ever since my teacher told me about this place. Surely is a nice day out today. Perfect for fighting some of these martial artist too." Thane thought to himself poached on the very top of the ships mast. He was looking into the distance, specifically their destination Karate Island. "Michael, we're almost at Karate Island. Maybe less than 30 minutes away. I got guidelines for you when we get to this island let me do the talking please....you know how you get." Thane leaped off the mast and landed on the deck of the ship below near his Captain, Sengoku D. Michael. "There is this dude named Ares that I've heard is the prodigy of that island. So its natural to assume he's the strongest on that island, he'll be a good edition to our crew if we get him to join. He probably won't just submit to joining, I heard he's stubborn like you which means I probably should handle him. Stubborn on even more stubborn gets nowhere." Sighing, Thane smacked his forehead in frustration after explaining things to his captain. "Why the hell did I explain things to him. He's just gonna do things his own way." "Point is Michael, don't go making an enemy of this island or Ares, we want him to join our crew not despise us. Got it?" "He doesn't......" "Alllllllllllllllllright!" Michael shouted at the top of his lounges jumping into the air. "Karate Island. I heard there's many strong people there who use their fists. Rahahaha!" The young rookie pirate balled his fist up as his body was filled with overwhelming excitement. "That's good Thane! You go look for this Ares guy, and I'll go survey the island to make sure it's safe." Michael nodded his head at his own words, but extensively ignoring Thane at the same time. Without allowing Thane to give his own two cents on the matter, "Then it's settle! Good job, Thane." "Why did I join his crew?" "Yeah make sure the island is....safe....When I find him I'll send a signal out in the air, a ball of light. I won't use my devil fruit powers here either because quite frankly I want to test my hand to hand combat skills against these people especially Ares." As the ship moved on drawing close to Karate Island, Thane couldn't help but get goosebumps every moment they got closer. Thane's hand to hand combat prowess was his bread and butter of his fighting style, he relied on it more than his Pika Pika no Mi's power. To come to an island where they teach many different martial arts would be like a kid in a candy store. Thane could do nothing but get excited over the thought of witnessing these people. On Karate Island, the village in which Ares's dojo was located was called Punchers Way. This village was renowned for its practise of Boxing, as most of the Dojo's in the village specialised in the upper body martial art. The name of Ares's dojo was Kami's Dojo, named after his sensei's clan. Kami's was the place in which he had learned all of the martial arts he knows. As he stepped into Kami's, Ares was greeted by the five most promising young martial artists of the Dojo. "Please spar with us Ares-sama, help us train today," they all said simultaneously. He grinned and simply replied by taking his Southpaw boxing stance. All five also responded by taking there respective stances, honouring the Dojo's code; Let the Martial Arts do the talking. While this was happening the entirety of the dojo, including the sensei's, stopped what they were doing to watch the sparring battle. The two that used boxing engaged Ares first. One an inside fighter and the other a brawler, but both throwing a flurry of speedy assorted punches. With little effort each and every punch was evaded by Ares, who was using his famed Outside fighting. In the blink of an eye, Ares threw to lightning fast counter punches at both opponents seemingly simultaneously, sending them crashing down to the mat. Despite knowing full well of what Ares was capable, his spectating fellow martial artists where always in awe of his superb skill. "Is that all you got..? C'mon show me the fruits of your training!!" Ares exclaimed, with an even larger grin than before, encouraging his young opponents. As the ship docked on the island, Thane couldn't help but smile upon disembarking from the ship. He stepped foot on the island of his martial art dreams, the look and even the smell of the island meant everything to him. Thane looked around at the inhabitants of the island and noticed how everyone was in fit condition, no one was overweight or had the physique of an average human with the exception of small infants. Even the old people of the island had a toned muscular physique. Thane took notice to some people in certain martial arts attire such as boxing gloves, hand wraps, gis, kimonos, and much more. "Welcome to Karate Island. Pirates I assume?" An old woman said to Thane and Michael with a warm expression on her face. "Hello, yes we a pirate but trust me we won't cause trouble. If we did I'm sure you all would be more than capable of handling us two. Say hi Michael." Thane said as he elbowed Michael on his side, signaling him to say hello to the lady that greeted them. "MY NAME IS SENGOKU D. MICHAEL AND I'M GONNA BE THE KING OF THE PIRATES!!" Shouting from the top of his lungs, Michael's voice radiating throughout the entirety of Karate Island. He didn't need the aid of a transponder snail so that his voice could be heard. That single sentence alone meant the world to him, and it would be his only regret had he not achieved his dream and died before he could. "I heard there's some tough people here on this island! Point the strongest guy out, I'll take him down and make him a member of my crew!" Smashing his left fist into the palm of his right hand a small flare of flames sparked upon collision. Thane had his own reasons for wanting to come to Karate Island, and so did Michael. He came looking for members, to strengthen his crew. The old woman chuckled. "Strongest person, you say? Well child, he is away from the island right now however, his teenage disciple is still here: Ares, the most promising disciple of our island. Find your way to Kami's Dojo in Punchers Way. There, you will find what you seek," she said, before explaining the route. She carefully examined the two teens after, but the pink haired child piqued her interest. "That look in his eye.. it reminds me of . Well Ares, only time will tell what fate has in store for you,"'' she thought to herself. Meanwhile back at the dojo, Ares was still sparring with the remaining three young prodigy's. The effort from each of them was evident in the sweat dripping down their faces. Despite this, they continued. Like before two of them approached Ares. A Jae Kun Do user and a Muay Thai user. The former performed a roundhouse kick aimed at Ares's head. He spotted the faults in the kick and formulated his counter but before he could execute this plan he was put off by a loud shout which forced him into a retreat. He couldn't quiet make out what was said but what he heard was "Pirate King". "Pirates huh? Interesting," he thought to himself. Returning his mind back to the battle at hand he regained his momentarily misplaced composure. Spotting the student who stayed at the back of the mats slightly relaxed guard he striked. Speeding past the two in front of him, momentarily disappearing, he was suddenly behind the exposed student. "Mouhan!!" he shouted as he delivered a swift, but albeit restrained, elbow into the back of his head knocking him down instantly. The two remaining combatants stood in awe. Capitalising on this Ares switched to a Jae Kun Do stance, with one foot raised and bent. He then kicked out in front of him, supposedly hitting nothing, creating a small shockwave (similar to that of the Rankyaku) which knocked them both out of the mats parameter. "So.. who's next?" Ares said cheekily. Letting off a sigh at the statement made by Michael, Thane listened to the woman as she was giving them info on where the strongest person on the island was. She mentioned that "He" was away which mean that the strongest was currently not on the island at the moment. However the fact that she mentioned the person Thane was looking for from the start of their voyage to this island made Thane even more excited than he was. "Seems like you're idiotic ways helped us Michael." "Thank you for the information mam. Let's go pay Kami's Dojo a visit." "You're facing the wrong way, you dumb ass." Michael pointed to the opposite direction that Thane had initially been facing. Heading towards the direction the lady had pointed to, Michael walked in a goofy manner all while mumbling. "Dare he call me stupid, I'll show him who's stupid when I become the King of the Pirates. Now where's this dumb dojo at." As Michael continued on, he was hit and sent flying. "What was that?!" "Wuuu wuuu wuukong Wukong!" Over in the distance, the mumbles of what had presumably crashed into Michael laid in rubble. From within the rubble was a small flare. Rushing over to the other side of the pathway, Michael began to yell. "Watch where you're going next time!" Reaching into the rubble Michael pulled out what was lying within it only to have his mouth drop open at what he'd just discovered. "You dumb Monkey!" Launching the small Monkey towards a nearby wall using every bit of his might. As the rest of the students in the Dojo carried on their training Ares was in the corner sat down, crossed legged with his eyes closed. He was in a relaxed state of concentration. While he tried to clear his mind, he simply couldn't. All that he could think of was what he heard earlier: Pirate King. It bugged him, no matter how hard he tried to forget about it, he simply couldn't. All while the faintest of smiles grew on his face, it was clear that he was excited. He just simply couldn't help but being excited. "Ryuga-sensei said I shouldn't use this new technique but.. well he's not here so why not," Ares said to himself deviously. Ares broke a sweat, it slithered all the way down the side of his face. While it appeared nothing had happened, Ares put a new technique he'd be training into effect: Kenbunhoku Haki. He smiled as it worked but was still surprised by the shear strain it took to perform. "Two of them huh? They're auras are strong, perhaps as strong as mine or stronger. They're getting closer," he thought to himself. A huge smile emerged on his face as he failed to contain his excitement. "WUKONG!" Emerging from the pile of rubble, the monkey dashed at Michael in a form of a wheel spiraling in flames. However, quick on his feet, Michael wrapped his hands in his own flames, catching the monkey stopping it in it's tracks. "Why the hell are you even here, Wukong." With it's typical monkey-like shouts, Wukong spit out a array of flames at Michael's face. Michael remained standing with a firm grip on the monkey still. "I don't have time for any of this monkey business! I gotta get to that dojo, so that I can make my crew stronger. Wait a minute..." Michael looked left and right, but couldn't find exactly what he was looking for. Easily deduced by the expression on his face. "Where'd Thane go?!" Taking off with swiftness, "Come on." He stated, holding on to the monkey, as he headed towards the northern direction his body being pushed at great speeds. Speedsters Collide "Weird..." "Kami's Dojo is up ahead according to the lady and well it says Kami's Dojo on the front of the building. Again please, let me do the talking and fighting at least until I beat Ares or he beats me. If he beats me you fight him because you have a sense of adapting to a fighter's style, so make sure you watch us fight. But I plan to beat him so we probably won't need to do anything." Before the two knew it they were at the front entrance of the Dojo, Thane took a step into the Dojo first walking through the door and into a room that seemed to be a training room. Several people were in the room, battered and bruised all but one. The man was sitting in the corner crossed legged with his eyes closed. "Bet that's Ares" "Excuse me, I'm looking for a guy name Ares." Thane said in an assertive tone of voice so all could hear. Although he knew who Ares was, from observing the room, he wanted to see if Ares himself would step up and confront him. The unexpected entrance of the yellow haired teen had caused a cease to everything that had previously been going on in the Dojo. Everyone present in the Dojo had taken up a hostile stance preparing to engage the stranger. "He's not here," spoke on of them in an attempt to defend Ares, while another darted towards Thane clearly aiming to attack him. Ares rose from his cross-legged position rather rapidly. "Hiruko stop! Your approach was flawed, he would of smashed you right into the floor," Ares pointed out, stopping Hiruko in his tracks. Slowly walking towards the yellow haired man, he could simply tell that he was no amatuer when it came to fighting. Upon closer inspection Ares had recognised his face, right before stopping a few meters away. "I know who you are, you're Thane. The Yellow Flash... a rookie Pirate. I'm guessing you already know who I am. So, what brings a pirate to Punchers Way.. What do you want from me?" he spoke firmly and boldly, preparing himself in event of an attack. Thane stood firm as the expression and stance of the people in the Dojo took a hostile turn. The man than charged towards Thane posed no harm to him, what Ares said was exactly what Thane was going to do. What was amazing was that Ares figured what Thane would do before he would do it. "His fighting intuition......" "Seems like I'm known a little I see." Thane said with a smirk on his face. "This fellow behind me is my captain and I'm apart of his crew, the Silver Scarf Pirates. I'm the tactician of the crew and we're recruiting people to our crew. Ares, you are a prodigy of this island and probably a magnificent fighter which is why we came here to ask you to join. But I know things about you, and I know you won't just agree to this so I want to issue a challenge with a wager. Fight me one on one. If I win you join our crew. If I lose, well then the captain is going to hop in and he's a tough cookie to crack when he has his mind set on something. So how about it, Iron Arm Ares?" Ares smiled, overjoyed by Thanes challenge. Before he got respond he suffered a short, sharp pain to the head. It was a migraine side effect of the Alpha Six, in desperate attempt to ignore this pain he merely winced. "Me.. a pirate? Hmm, now that would be interesting.. I guess," ''he thought to himself. Looking at the pink haired teen, he gauged that he was also probably around his own age and younger than Thane. The face to the pink haired man rung a bell somewhere in his mind but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.. it bugged him. Meanwhile, the entire Dojo went quiet awaiting the response of Ares, apart from the occasional quiet whispers. Tension was so thick in the air it was nearly touchable. Ares knew full well what his fellow martial arts wanted him to say but his own heart and mind felt otherwise. He cracked his knuckles before cracking every other bone in his body. "A two man crew huh? Absolutely hilarious. Well, your bounty is higher than mine so there's no way I'm refusing.. I accept!! Follow me, my master will ''kill me if I mess up the Dojo," Ares said, as he seemingly disappeared, reappearing outside the dojo in the field where he had previously shattered the boulder. "Just as I thought" Thane thought with a smile on his face. Thane looked at the students that were hostile towards him and noticed they all still had that same expression and body language. "Lighten up guys, if I wanted to do something harmful to you guys and this Dojo trust me me and my captain wouldn't have just waltz in and asked for Ares. We would have just blow this place to bits...." Walking past the students, Thane had a smug look on his face, his cockiness emitting from his facial expression. He walked out the back of the Dojo where it lead to a field outside. Thane noticed this bits of rock on the ground in a specific area of the field and was curious at the rocks but had an idea as to what happened. "I take it you train out here, those rocks, perhaps a boulder that you smashed? Well any who, I'll let you attack me first." Thane left himself open as an open invention for Ares to attack him. "Letting me attack first huh? Well ain't you the arrogant little shit," Ares chuckled. Like most uptodate residents of the South Blue, Ares had already known Thane was known for his rare logia fruit nd blinding speed. Being a speedster himself, Ares wanted to find out exactly how fast Thane was. His keen observational skill wouldn't miss a thing while analyzing his foe. "Kiju Genko!!" Ares roared as he suddenly appeared before executing a slightly powered down version of the original, however the speed of the barrage was still inhumane. A barrage of fist were thrown at Thane at speeds a normal human wouldn't be able to comprehend. Thane allowed the first few punches fly towards him, dodging them as he observed the movements of Ares. "He's indeed fast, but there's no way this is his maximum speed. He's holding back..." Thane intercepted one of the punches from Ares by parrying it towards the inside of Ares body so that it would disrupt the flow of his follow up punch, thereby effectively stopping his attack. Thane would then bring his leg up in quick succession of his counter to deliver a push kick towards the gut of Ares that would push him back a few meters. "I expected nothing less," Ares said in his head as he was pushed back by Thanes kick. Ares knew he could of countered that kick but letting it hit him was all part of his analytical gauging of the foe before him. So far, he was impressed to say the least. It wasn't every day he went up against someone who could keep up with his restrained speed. Getting to caught up in strategizing for the fight, Ares had nearly forgot that his foe was a consumer of a logia devil fruit. Hitting him by ordinary means would have little to know effect. Ares reached into his pocket, pulling out and putting on his signature Seastone Knuckledusters. Immediately after, he retook his southpaw stance and began to bounce on his feet. "Outside fighting it is then," he thought to himself. "Impressive, but show me what you really got Yellow Flash!" Ares roared. "Looks like seastone, crap." "If it's any reassurance, I wasn't going to use my devil fruit powers any this fight. Ya know, to make things even between us. But since you've pulled out those seastone gauntlets, I'm going to use them.....Shinyū." Thane muttered as his body glowed a bright white light. Thane's fist and legs shined more than the rest of his body which to any skilled fighter would signal a concentration of Thane's light in that area that would increase damage or protection. In this case, Thane was looking to increase his damage output. Thane sped off towards Ares at a superhuman speed, once in range Thane would do a complete front flip and upon reaching the end of the flip extend his leg out to perform a flipping axe kick on Ares. To further increase damage and attempt to catch Ares off guard, Thane increased the speed of his flipping axe kick to nearly triple the speed he had previously used to dash at Ares. "Too predictable," Ares said under his breath, as he speeded towards the location where Thane had launched from. Ares had timed this to perfection, beginning his rapid movement at the exact time in the flip where Thane would briefly lose sight of him. While still not utilising his top speed, he travelled at an unprecedented speed that would cause an after image to briefly remain where he formerly stood. Capitalising on the mistake made by Thane, he raised his leg and executed a Rankyaku aimed at the airborne Thanes back. After returning his leg safely to the ground, he once again took up his Southpaw style and began bouncing on his toes. Thane was hit by the Rankyaku in his back making him arc. Luckily, thanks to his Shinyū he was able to withstand the force of the attack. The compressed blade of air eventually decompressed and allowed for Thane to safely return to the ground with a minor bruise on his back. He could have simply turned into light, but he didn't. Thane wanted to be able to fight Ares with little to no support from his devil fruit even if it had meant taking an attack or two head on. Thane dashed towards Ares faster than the eye could see in a linear movement with his arm extended out, attempting to perform a lariat on the prodigy martial artist. While Ares hadn't really expected for his prior attack to do much damage, he was still impressed on how his opponent had handled the situation. What impressed even more however, was Thanes tranisition from a strong defence to a speeding attack. Now seeing Thane executing this speeding attack, Ares had formulated a variety of counter moves. However, still attempting to gauge Thane's true strength, he remained where he stood planning to block the lariat. Ares raised both of his arms, with the outer forearms facing outward similarly to the Peek-a-boo boxing stance, protecting his face, neck and chest. Once this stance had been assumed he braced himself. The lariat had hit Ares's guard head on, the force of it coupled with Ares not trying to withstand this force had caused him to be sent back a couple meters. The impact of Thanes attack left purple bruises on Ares arms. He smiled, acknowledging his foes strength, not just anyone could leave a mark on his dense skin. Ares was also aware that that was probably not Thanes maximum power either. To begin his own attack, Ares picked up to pieces of the previously shattered boulder and launched them at Thane at the speed of a cannon ball. He then threw four more in rapid succession, totalling six cannon ball like pieces of debris speeding at Thane. "Didn't expect him to block it." As Ares was pushed back by his lariat, Thane continued to follow Ares until he picked up the pieces of boulder from the ground and launched a couple of them at Thane. Thane stopped in his tracks and swayed to the right then left to evade the first two pieces. The next four pieces, Thane decided to show off for Ares. The third piece, Thane performed a leaping front flip dive over it. The forth piece followed rapidly and for that Thane simply opened his legs so that the piece could also fly right by him. Using his hands, his used his momentum to spring board off the ground before he could fully complete the flip to propel himself over the fifth piece while spinning so that his body would position horizontally in the air. He positioned himself so that the last piece would end up at the bottom of his leg where the foot and leg connected and somewhat caught the piece of boulder there. Thane would draw his leg back as the piece moved forward and then kick forward to send the piece of boulder flying back towards Ares at almost triple the speed he had thrown them. ---- The two had been at it for just a short period of time, and not once did Thane question the location of his captain. Michael on the other hand, had found himself in a lost as he jetted across the area trying to find the location of the one called Ares. Recklessly running through the island, Michael would be bound to find his destination. That was of course, had he not been found by a unwanted foe himself. As he continued to utilize his advanced fire movement, Michael and the monkey ran into a immovable force. "Ouch!" Michael shrieked looking up, only to find a man standing over him who's muscles were at least three times his own. The man's hair was a mixture of both black and white. Despite his large build, the man appeared to be very young. Glaring down at Michael the man finally spoke. "Watch where you're going, runt." "Runt?! Who're you calling runt." "Wait a minute, pink hair and that silver scarf. Sengoku D. Michael." "Damn right I am, it's about time someone put some respect on my name! Everyone acting like they don't know who I am." "Listen up kid, it's not a good thing that I know who you are. When the name of a pirate comes across our desk, then you're priority rises. Can't believe this runt here is the one causing all of this mayhem." Reaching down and lifting Michael by his neck, the man squeezed it tightly attempting to choke Michael out. "I don't know why Kurama-san doesn't let us eliminate all of your rookies already." "Get your hands off of me! You can't treat the future king of the Pirates this way!" Pulling his fist all the way back, Michael sent a punch that was filled with his flames at the open abdominal of the unknown foe. The man simply looked down as the punch of flames burst revealing he took no damage. ----